“That… that was the first time I died” – Jackie Estacado

Image Comics have always been on of my favorite franchises because of their realistic depiction of super powered individuals. I do not use the term “superheores” because this particular terminology doesn’t quite apply to the protagonists of this franchise.

I have always questioned the garden variety origins of most superheroes. “How did they become heroes and not thugs? How come superpowers were always given to people with a good sense justice and a compass like morality?” These superheroes were normal humans when one considered the fact that their psychology and personality remained unaffected (at least not explicitly mentioned), but their unfailingly saintly sense of morality ascended mere mortals. There came a time when i was bored of all this bright and white sense of righteousness and justice. I wanted to see a human, a normal human with human flaws in character, someone who is volatile, vulnerable and sensitive wield a supreme power. That was when i came across the comic series called “THE DARKNESS”.

Jackie Estacado, the protagonist of the series is a hitman working for a mafia lord. Apart from sleeping with chicks, drinking and killing people effortlessly, Jackie had nothing much to his life. At least nothing that he knew. Jackie was a regular thug, a cold blooded killer with childhood issues. So, incidentally on his twenty first birthday, Jackie gained possession of his birthright, a legacy of doom- The Darkness. The darkness is the power of Ruins and ultimate abandon. In the absence of illumination it gives its wielder God-like powers. Its the power of creation, one can create practically anything in darkness. Imagine a guy like Jacky Estacado wield a power like that.